Enigma
by cider-spice
Summary: No one knew who Edward Elric was, least of all Edward Elric.
1. Chapter 1

**Just a random plot thread that popped into my head while I was daydreaming, and since I have nothing better to do, I wrote it out. Hope it amuses you.**

No one knew where Edward Elric had appeared from, least of all Edward Elric himself.

He seemed to be exponentially academically inclined, despite his lack of personal memories, barring his own name. In fact, Harry and his friends would have been almost certain that he was faking his amnesia if not for how bothered Elric seemed to be by his gap in personal information. Whenever anyone, genuinely curious or not, would ask about tidbits such as his family or birth town, he would give a blank stare until the offending inquirer left his presence.

The twins greatly admired his poker face.

The golden haired young man was almost always in some nook in the library during his spare time, furiously devouring knowledge like his life depended on it. Hermione could only look on in incredulous disbelief and annoyance as he went through volume after volume with no apparent trouble at all, all the while ignoring any and all mention of his name or attempt to obtain his attention.

Oddly, the boy seemed to have an opposing relationship to magic, despite being a wizard in a wizarding school. Neville had once discovered the boy levitating a book, and staring at it with such an intense hate, that he was surprised the textbook hadn't gone up in flames from sheer hatred alone. When Neville had inquired shakily if something was the matter, Elric had proceeded to go off on a long tangent about "physics" and "breaking the natural law of things", all the while leaving Neville so confused that he left in the middle of his rant.

Elric, absorbed in his rambling, hadn't seemed to notice.

He had other strange quirks about him, such as the fact that he was probably the only non-Quidditch playing student to even remotely care about his physical ability. He (according to his Ravenclaw dormmates) would spend much of the early morning doing various exercises, (much to their confusion). Despite being fairly small compared to the average 15 year old, not even any 7th years had beaten him in an arm wrestle.

His strange quirks had all but alienated him from the rest of the school, barring one Luna Lovegood, which while did not serve to help his reputation, he seemed to genuinely enjoy the company of. They would sit with each other at mealtimes, Luna telling Elric about some article in her father's paper, all the while he would listen attentively, albeit looking mildly amused. Any and all bullying of Luna had thus stopped, after an incident in which an unsuspecting Slytherin had ended up in Madame Pomfrey's office with a bloody nose.

During classes he would pay very little attention to whatever lecture or demonstration was going on, all the while still managing to get exceptional marks, much to Hermione's chagrin. "Honestly," she said, "it's almost like he's trying to annoy me! I swear I've seen him giving me side smirks while our grades are being handed out!"

No one who sat near Elric would either confirm nor deny these claims.

Nonetheless, despite all the random tidbits of personality and information Harry had managed to gather about Edward Elric, he was still very much a mystery to him. All he really know about him was that Dumbledore himself had enrolled the boy into the school after an incident in a foster home Elric had formerly been instituted in for about 6 months. Elric also refused to comment on what exactly the incident was, and when Harry had pushed him, he had been threatened with a fist the the forehead, to "give you another scar to match the one you already have."

Harry had backed off after that.

But Edward Elric was still a mystery, one that Harry Potter was determined to unravel.

**Do you know the last time I wrote anything like this? Literally 3 years ago when I finished school. Jesus.**

**Anyways I have no idea if I want to continue this, I might do small one-off chapters, but I honestly haven't thought of any plot to continue this with. You can throw some ideas about this in the reviews if you so desire, but no promises i'll write anything else. But for what it is, I hope you enjoyed it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey lmao I came back for another chapter? Tbh if there will be more updates in the future they will most likely just be disconnected shorter chapters about random encounters and scenarios. Speaking of which, this is an idea suggested by Zaire Giovanni which I really liked? It was interesting and I would have expanded on it more but I am feeling Very Light Headed at the moment so I'll just leave it as it is. Hope you like it.**

It was the in the early hours of the morning when Hermione Granger almost ran straight into Hogwart's most reserved student on her way to the library. She had been hurrying along a hallway on her way to get some extra study in for her Potions assignment, when she turned a corner only to find a very solid obstacle in her path. She swerved just in time and almost tripped over herself in the process, but Elric didn't even seem to notice.

Elric, to put it simply, looked as if he had seen better nights. He had large bags under his eyes, and his vision seemed to be clouded over and unfocused. He had his hair falling loose over his back, and the woolly oversized pyjamas and overall cluttered appearance of the boy caused Hermione to not even realise who it was at first glance, especially while she was preoccupied with not falling flat on her face.

"Ah- Sorry!" She gasped out, attempting to push her frizzy hair out of her face in an attempt to look more composed than she really was. Elric glanced at her, finally seeming to notice her presence, but his eyes still looked fuzzy and unseeing. He narrowed his eyes and blinked a few times, and suddenly his bright golden colour seemed to bleed through the blurred irises. He blinked a few more times, then slowly frowned. "Hermione... Granger, right?" he asked, unsure, his voice crackly.

Hermione took a breath, still recovering from her shock, and nodded. "Yes.. we have a few classes together?" She exhaled, still tucking back a few brown curls. "I don't believe we've spoken?..."

"No, I don't think we have." Elric sighed and scratched the back of his head, slowly turning to face her properly. He blew at his unruly bangs, unsuccessfully removing them from obscuring his vision. Hermoine had wondered in the past why he did not simply get a haircut, but from what she had gathered, while the boy seemed to get frustrated at his long hair at times, he had never expressed a need nor a want to cut it. She supposed it was a personal matter, so she didn't feel the need to pry.

She looked up to see Elric had decided to again pour his focus onto whatever he had been looking at when she had first rounded the corner. The look on his face seemed to be nostalgic, yet confused, as if he wasn't sure he should be nostalgic about. She glanced down to see he was clenching and unclenching his fists slowly, as if he was trying to force himself to concentrate. Glancing at his face again, she noticed he was slightly chewing his bottom lip, but looking into his eyes again, she could see that they were struggling to remain clear and focused.

Finally glancing over to see what the boy had been staring at with such intensity, she was mildy confused, to be honest.

It was a large set of what seemed (to her at least) to be antique armour. It was silver, and while not rusty, looked as though it hadn't seen a polish in a while, judging by the fine layer of dust that coated it. It seemed to be at least 8 feet tall (are armour this tall actually meant to be worn or just used as a cool decor choice for castle hallways? Hermione had never really thought about it before) with spikes adorning its' shoulder plates, as well as longer spikes protruding from the wrist up to the elbow joint. The rest of the armour seemed to be your standard medieval garb, but it had one long

feather hanging from the top of the helmet almost down to the waist.

For whatever reason, this particular set of armour seemed to radiate a sense of warmth, despite not having a wearer. Hermione blinked, and frowned.

(It almost feels _alive_.)

She was shaken out of her thoughts by a hand suddenly thrust into her line of sight. The brunette looked up to see Elric had stopped inspecting the large silver suit, and had instead started offering his right hand to her, giving her a sidelong glance. "I suppose," he stated, closing his eyes, "that we should introduce ourselves properly." He opened his eyes and fixed her in an intense stare, which almost seemed like he was daring her to look away.

Hermoine suddenly felt she had entered a staring contest without her knowledge.

Nevertheless, she smiled hesitatingly and gripped his hand with hers, shaking for a few seconds. "My name's Hermione Granger. I'm a fifth year and a Gryffindor."

Elric grinned at her suddenly, his face seeming ten times more alive than she had ever really seen it, despite the dark bags still prevalent underneath his eyes. "My name's Edward Elric, and I'm a fifth year. I'm apparently a Ravenclaw." He still held tightly onto her hand for a millisecond, then suddenly let go, surprising Hermione, who left her hand hanging in empty space for a moment before she realised. He crossed his arms behind his head, balancing on his heels. "You can call me Ed though, if you want to."

Hermione smiled again, a stronger and more real one this time. "Sure, Ed."


End file.
